Remember when Cory Tweeted the photo of him shaking hands with the Canadian PM with the caption, “This matters,” and then removed it within just a few minutes?
I’m not suggesting that that cost him a job, but it was apparently sloppy, and I’m guessing he wouldn’t have taken it down unless Brad called him and ordered him to.
Pure speculation of course, but why else does one hastily remove a selfie of themselves with a PM?

Brad Garlinghouse has said from the start that this is a 3-5 year plan, and that we are in the very early steps of a marathon. He’s stated that he isn’t concerned about price at this phase. Meanwhile, he seems to have kept his promises about rapidly building solid partnerships.
We’ve seen celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Scooter Braun promote them and hint of things to come. We’ve seen banks invest millions and millions of dollars into Ripple, while claiming that the XRP standard is coming. We’ve seen David Schwartz’s price predictions (he would possibly say that he didn’t make a price prediction per se, but let’s just call it a “discussion of theoretical price range”.) We’ve seen Ripple investing millions in universities and innovative companies. We’ve seen hundred-million XRP transfers happen in seconds, for a penny.
The handwriting couldn’t be more obviously on the wall. It’s like living in the 1800’s and watching hundreds of miles of railroad track being laid, but being discouraged because you haven’t seen any trains.
The trains are coming, folks.

They are clearly waiting for me to accumulate more. I’m hurrying, but I have a very limited income and it’s going to take a long time to accumulate enough to send my kids to college, and buy our family dream home. Be patient though... just a few more months....

I’ll tell you exactly why.
Many people bought in heavily over the past few months, even to the point of over-extending and buying more than they could afford. They knew that they would have to sell in December, in order to buy Christmas gifts and pay bills, but they didn’t want to risk out the possibility of an EoY super-rally. They knew quite well that there was a very real possibility that the plan would fail and they wouldn’t make any huge gains, but they also felt confident that they wouldn’t suffer a huge loss, so they figured they’d let it ride as long as they could. Now they are buying Christmas gifts.
These people are very eager to get back in ASAP after the holidays, and are hoping prices stay low until tax returns come in, so that they can buy back in.
Source: my own situation, and several people I work with.

Institutional investors?
Yes, I hate Coinbase right along with most of you, however they are a very established name and now provide a secure custody solution for multi-million dollar investors wishing to buy XRP. Banks are going to need secure custody solutions. Or maybe they will just store giant golden Nano Ledgers in their vaults..?

Can I state something that I think is somewhat obvious, yet I've very rarely seen discussed? IMHO it's kind of an "elephant in the room":
XRP has a real name problem which IMHO is hindering mass-adoption.
Let me just state for the record that I am incredibly bullish on XRP and Ripple. I've been a supporter for a year now, having switched over to it from BTC after realizing that BTC had significant scaling issues; but I've always felt that it's name hinders its adoption somewhat, by the general public. "Bitcoin," "Stellar," "Ether," "Litecoin"..... all of these are easily and intuitively pronounceable. But outside of our circle of knowledgeable investors, most people would not intuitively know that it's pronounced, "Zerp." [sic] Also to be blunt, "Xerp," sounds kind of..... well, dumb. I think that this is kind of a consequence of Ripple distancing themselves from it last year. IMHO XRP wasn't really ever intended to be a proper name, so much as a ticker-symbol. This was evidenced by the fact that so many news sites and exchanges were so slow to stop referring to it as Ripple ( even to this day some struggle with this.)
I'm curious if anyone else thinks that the public will have trouble taking a currency with the name "Xerp," seriously....?
I get that this will be a non-issue for banks/FIs... but I'm talking specifically about mass-adoption as a currency. I'm also not suggesting that this is some sort of deal-breaking problem; just that it's hindering it's growth.
Lastly just wanted to add that I don't really think Ripple wants it to mature in value too quickly at this point. At least not until the network has grown, which is probably very soon.

From six months ago:
https://oracletimes.com/tipping-point-ripple-xrp-adds-bank-per-week-in-quick-fire-xrapid-inroads/
“...So many banks are signing on so quickly that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a recent interview that Ripple would stop announcing partnerships until the number reaches 200...”

Like Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus: some of the most impressive testimonies sometimes come from those who were once the most outspoken critics. (I’m certainly not comparing XRP to Christ, but just saying that these sort of high-profile converts can make the most zealous promoters.)

Those of you who are critical are reading the article, correct? Make no mistake... this is an investment.
”Ripple’s new focus reflects its view that education, particularly in STEM and FinTech, is a key driver of innovation across all sectors. Ripple’s contributions to teaching and research in blockchain (through the University Blockchain Research Initiative), cryptocurrency and fintech are intended to encourage broader understanding, adoption and innovation in business and finance, computer science, law and policy and other relevant fields. In particular, Ripple for Good will focus on applications and real-world use cases with the potential for scalable social impact.l